Leadership magazine Sept/Oct 2014 V 44 No 1 | Page 11

VIEW Point

For clarity of purpose, pick just one word
Don’t bother starting the school year with a complicated slogan. Instead,
embrace the simplicity of selecting just one word to guide your team.
By Charles F. Young and Lisa Gonzales

T

he new school y ear is upon us, and you might be
thinking about the LCAP, Smarter Balanced, strategic plan, mission statements, Common Core, WASC
… and the list goes on and on.
Overwhelmed? It’s easy to be. Would you like to start your
year with simplicity and focus? Would you like to
establish clarity of purpose that produces results
and builds a sense of team with laser-sharp focus?
You should.
And there is a way and it is pretty basic.
One word.
Many of us have started the year with slogans:
“New Year, New Vision,” “2013: The Year of the
Core,” “Smart Balanced, Promise and Purpose.” You might have
tried this too. Yawn. Too complicated.
The simplicity of one word is where we need to be headed. And
the authors of “One Word That Will Change Your Life” (Gordon
et al, 2014) have designed a fun and utterly doable process for
selecting the ONE word that can have a powerful effect on your
school or district team.

Three steps to selecting your word
Where do you start? The process for selecting your word involves only three steps to ask yourself or your team:
1. What do we need? (What areas need to change or evolve?)
2. What’s in our way? (What are the potential barriers to
growth?)
3. What needs to go? (What is holding the team back and
needs to be pitched?)
Visualize your word, shared school- or district-wide, woven
into banners and tweets, e-blasts and staff meetings, student recognition and blogs. Perhaps it’s a word like “balance.”
Simple, right? It is, but you also need to give yourself, and your
team, a little time to reflect. Share the word at a staff meeting
or virtually. Brainstorm what it might look like in your setting.
Here are some ideas for our word “balance:”
• Balance of instructional practices.
• Balance of academics and social emotional needs.
• Balance of self and taking time to care for each other.
• Balance of perspective and seeking multiple ideas.

Are you ready? Let’s put “balance” into action. Weave it into
staff meetings. Look for quotes, sayings or stories that reinforce
balance. Write a poem. Acknowledge it. Document it. Wordle
it. Tie balance to your school vision. Use it with students. Weave
it into goals. Have a poster contest. Decorate an area of campus
with balance on student-designed tiles.
Think this is malarkey? Think again.
Many very visible organizations, such as Pepsi
and the Atlanta Falcons, and many smaller ones,
such as the Gettysburg College women’s lacrosse
team and Santa Clara University men’s basketball
team, have gone through this unification process
over and over, renewing their sense of purpose
year after year. Encourage your own team members to use the
word to bring out the best in each other.

One word. Big impact.
Need some ideas? Try these on for size: Balance. Purpose.
Commitment. Confidence. Opportunity. Generous. Believe.
Courage. Inspire. Attitude. Focus. New. Challenge. Now. Today.
Consider taking time to cut through the organizational morass that can dilute your focus and efforts. Consider selecting
ONE word to guide you, and your team, to new levels of achievement and satisfaction. Place the one-word activity on the agenda
at an ACSA charter or region meeting. Share your successes on
the ACSA message board. Focus your charter or region with one
word.
It starts with you. One word. Big impact. Start. Now. n

References
Gordon, J.; Britton, D. & Page, J. (2014). One Word That Will
Change Your Life. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Charles F. Young is associate superintendent in the Palo Alto Unified
School District. Lisa Gonzales is superintendent in the Portola Valley
School District and serves as ACSA’s Vice President for Legislative
Action. Both are members of TICAL, the Technology Information
Center for Administrative Leadership.

September/October 2014

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